Your phone is quiet. Customers aren’t sending you e-mail messages. Worst of all, no one’s spending money at your store. You often worry that you’ll soon be out of business. There could be a host of reasons behind your small business’ struggles. But have you investigated the role your business’ website could be playing? A bad business website is often even worse than no website at all. It might be costing you business.

Help is on the way

Luckily help is on the way. Entrepreneur Magazine recently ran a feature supplying business owners with the fundamentals every company website should contain. Following this advice can turn your business website from a negative to a positive. And the first tip? Your website should make clear right on its front page what your small business is, what it sells or offers and who it serves. This will convince visitors that they’ve found the right site.

Don’t hide

Don’t hide your business’ website behind a challenging domain name. The simpler your website address, the more likely that visitors will find your company’s online home. As an example, if you’re running Green Bay Hardware, attempt to land the website address www.greenbayhardware.com. That’s a far better choice than the difficult to find www.upperwistools.com. Entrepreneur suggests, too, that your website address end with a .com and that you avoid such distractions as dashes or numbers in your address.

A clear map

You also want to make sure that your site is easy to navigate. Entrepreneur states that your site should feature easy to find links and a site map. The site map ought to provide a fast path to your site’s most significant pages.